Fashioning a Hobbit out of a Mischievous Boy

How to Fashion a Hobbit out of a Mischievous Boy in Eight Not-So-Simple Steps

****This post was made a couple of months ago, and I'm just now getting around to adding pictures and putting it up on the blog***

Materials Needed:

* Two yards or so of Red Tweed Fabric

* A yard and a half of Light Brown Fabric

* A yard or so of Dark Brown Fabric

* A White Button Up Shirt (an older sister's might just do)

* Various Pictures of Adventurous Hobbit Folk for Inspiration

* Sewing Patterns to aide in the making of Hobbit Clothing

* Needles, Thread, Gold Buttons, Elastic and Fusible Inter-Facing (A Sewing Machine also comes in handy)

* A Sword that glows blue when Danger is Near

* Faux Hobbit Feet, a little big and nice & hairy

* The One Ring (if you can find multiples of these, do, some hobbits don't know how to keep track of their 'preciouses' and you'll be helping to search for it endlessly, I promise)

* And One Mischievous Hobbit-loving Boy, with his hair grown out a bit (you might need some orange and blue koolaid mixed with conditioner like this, to color his hair, should it be too fair for his taste)

Step ONE:

After gathering all of your materials, proceed to measure your boy to be sure to make sure his hobbit clothing will fit nicely.  This may cause some giggles and wiggles and questions and suggestions from your excited hobbit-to-be, along the lines of, "Why are you measuring me like that? Shouldn't you measure my tummy like this?  Don't forget to..." And so on, and so forth.

Step TWO: 

Since you may not have wanted to spend another dime (since you've already shelled out $40 or so already for this costume, swords that glow blue and The One Ring are not easy to come by, after all)--you may have to make adjustments to some of the many patterns that you already had that you thought would work just fine for your child's costume hobbit's clothing.  This may take a calculator and some tissue paper to draw out new patterns in the correct sizes.  And time, lots of you-could-have-been-sleeping time.

**If after even more time you're still stuck trying to figure out how to do this--you might decide to take an old shirt of your kiddo's and cut it up to use as parts of the pattern so you don't have to reinvent the wheel entirely.

Step THREE:

After getting your pattern pieces ready and cutting out your fabric (remember to keep the pant legs a bit on the short side!), go ahead and dye the red fabric pieces for the jacket with some brown and red dye, because you're too much of a perfectionist to use the bright red fabric (the only choice they had available at the store), desiring a darker more earthy red tone for your hobbit.

Step FOUR:

After the fabric is dry, sew the pieces of the clothing together according to your patterns' instructions.

Step FIVE (this one is essential--DO NOT SKIP!):

Take a nap because you started this project over 36 hours ago....and, at 5:30 am, it's almost time for your hobbit to wake up!!!

Step SIX:

Let your hobbit inspect his new wares by trying them on.  If they meet his approval, move to step SEVEN, if they don't, tell him, "TOUGH!" and move to step SEVEN anyway.  (It's a really good thing that they met his approval, because this Hobbit-Fashionista might have morphed into an orc had the latter happened, just saying.)

Step SEVEN:

Have your hobbit strip to at least his knickers and proceed to mix your koolaid hair coloring concoction according to these instructions (except that you're mixing orange and blue to create brown).  THIS DIDN'T WORK AS WE'D HOPED--so we went and got some temporary hair color that turned his hair a reddish-purplish-brown. :(  

Step EIGHT: 

Your hobbit is now ready to have his picture taken in many hobbit-esq poses (the weather wasn't too cooperative with this) or to have a long and unexpected journey (or to Trick or Treat, even).  He may even decide now is the perfect time to work on his cardboard version of "Bag End,"  you might decide it's the perfect time for another na--zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........